Post-paid mobile phones likely to resume in Kashmir from Saturday

Post-paid mobile services in Kashmir are likely to resume from Saturday, 68 days after they were shut down following the Centre's decision to abrogate Jammu and Kashmir's special status, officials said here Friday.

They made it clear that the subscribers will have to wait for some more time for the Internet services to resume in the valley. The officials said a decision has been taken that post-paid mobile services will be resumed in the beginning and the pre-paid services will be resumed later. They have also stressed that a proper verification of customer be undertaken for post-paid mobile services.

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The valley has nearly 66 lakh mobile subscribers out of which nearly 40 lakh subscribers have post-paid facilities. The move comes barely two days after the Centre issued an advisory opening the valley for tourists. Travel association bodies had approached the administration, saying that no tourist would like to come to the valley where no mobile phones working.

The mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir were shut down on August 5 after the Centre announced in New Delhi the abrogation of the special status guaranteed to the state under Article 370 of the Constitution. Partial fixed line telephony was resumed in the valley on August 17 and by September 4 all landlines, numbering nearly 50,000, were declared operational.

In Jammu, the communication system was restored within days of the blockade and even mobile Internet was started around mid-August. However, after its misuse, the Internet facility on cellular phones was snapped on August 18. 

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